Visitors' capital plan

Founder members of the band The Visitors, Jack Bottomley-Clift (left) and Charles Cotton are leaving to move to London

CO-FOUNDERS of ace Oldham rock n' roll outfit the Visitors - Charles Cotton and Jack Bottomley-Clift - are taking their talent and their tunes to London.

Frontman Jack and Charles - the band's brilliant lead guitarist - will head to the British and Irish Modern Music Institute in Fulham in September to take in a couple of years of study, though it's not just qualifications the close-knit pair are after.

"Charles and I just wanted to broaden our horizons really," said Jack.

"We wanted to try something new.

"Obviously we've had Johnny (drummer Wray) and Simon (bassist Berry) in the band recently, because Greg (Higham) left, but we just felt like we needed to go there to expand our passion for music and meet new people.

"We'll be wanting to blend in with the scene down there, and the idea is to just get a new band going.

"We have had some great musicians in our band who have all had their own passions to pursue, now it's time for us to meet people who are hopefully just as passionate as us.

"From the start the Visitors has been us two, so we just wanted to keep it going.

"Going to a place like London will just be the place to be we hope."

Hopefully the Visitors - probably by then with a new name - will return north one day soon, but it seems Charles is also ready for an exciting new challenge.

Asked about leaving Oldham behind, he said: "I will and I won't miss it. I kind of like the idea of playing to people I don't know.

"It is more exciting, playing to an audience you've never seen before.

"You can get yourselves into a rubbish routine I guess.

"When we started we were doing well. We got ourselves loads of followers doing Manchester, but then we took a back seat and did a few pubs around town, and that's when you start playing in front of the same people.

"It just becomes boring for them and boring for you, so hopefully this London trip will just refresh everything for us.

"It's mainly been me and Jack who have produced the material anyway, so that will still be there and just as good hopefully.

"Jack and I just write what we write so the sound shouldn't change too much I don't think. We just need loud musicians behind and hopefully that's what we'll find."

Between now and the September intake at BIMM London, the Visitors will be playing a few more gigs, most notably two headline shows at the prestigious 'Alderney Week' festival which takes place on the Channel Island between July 30 and August 6.

As well as that there will be a couple of pub outings, and hopefully a special 'farewell' gig, maybe at Jackson's Pit in Oldham.

"We'll do a few pub gigs to get some money in," said Jack.

"But we might also put our own night on, to say 'goodbye' I guess.

"It'd be nice to play a few tracks and maybe have a DJ on."

A great crowd for that particular send-off would be pretty much guaranteed.